Pet owners are well aware that pet ownership comes with certain responsibilities. Standard care practices of feeding, providing water, nurturing, and veterinary services are well known. Additionally, disposal of the pet's waste, especially the waste of dogs, is a chore of most pet owners. If the pet owner lives in a city or similar urban or suburban environment where large amounts of private land are uncommon, it is frequently required by law for pet owners to manually dispose of his or her pet's waste, especially if the pet defecates on public or government land.
Manually disposing of the pet's waste is unfortunate for the pet owner, as it requires additional labor to clean up, and the pet owner is potentially subject to contaminated fecal matter. Currently, there are two primary means of collecting pet waste for disposal—namely, a scoop, such as a conventional “PooperScooper,” or simply a plastic bag in the hand of the pet owner.
Frequently, bag dispensers are sold to facilitate the release of a bag and to minimize the space occupied by the bags during the walk. Unfortunately, nearly all of the bag dispensers or bag set-ups still require the pet owner to physically pick up the pet's waste with his or her hand, the only protection on the hand being the bag. Many pet owners find the warmth of pet waste one of the larger drawbacks to collecting pet waste in this fashion. A claw or “PooperScooper” type of product can help to eliminate this, however it would require frequent cleaning, and the user is still required to remove the excrement from the claw, and place it into a bag. This process may cause the user to spill the bag, exacerbating the process, and potentially soiling the hands of the user.
Thus, there is a need for a device which can automatically pick up pet waste into a sealed bag without the pet owner coming into remote contact with the pet waste. Such a device preferably employs a bag cartridge system, enabling the user to install a bag cartridge to a rim of the device. The bag is preferably air-permeable, such that the suction of the vacuum employed is not diminished during use.